For IBM analysts, however, the take is a little more reserved. Not negative, mind you, but not necessarily along the lines of “Sell the house and buy all the Big Blue you can get your hands on!” According to Factset, of the 27 analysts that cover IBM, 11 have a buy rating, one has the stock at sell, and 15 have a neutral take on the company’s shares. Price targets range between $198 to $251 a share, with the median target price at $230.

Pretty much in the neutral zone.

In fact, Brian Marshall, who covers IBM for ISI Group, harkens back to one of the great game shows of yore for looking at what to do about IBM.

“[The] $64,000 question is what to pay for Big Blue,” Marshall said in a research note Wednesday.

“Assuming there are three truisms in the world today: 1) death, 2) taxes, and 3) double-digit annual EPS growth at IBM, then the question on IBM really becomes not what the “E” is (i.e., earnings), but what is the appropriate “P” (or price) to pay for a business model like IBM’s is,” said Marshall, who polled several other ISI analysts who cover different industries, for what they thought IBM was worth.

The consensus? Based on IBM being a mature company, with minimal revenue growth [its fourth-quarter sales actually dipped by about 1% from a year ago] that offers a consistent 10% annual growth in per-share earnings, and a dividend, the fair value of Big Blue’s shares came to…around $190.

That’s about 8% less than where IBM’s shares traded Wednesday. As such, Marshall said, “We believe the company is currently overvalued…Or, perhaps, my colleagues and I are simply too tightfisted with the multiples in which we are willing to apply to a business model like IBM’s.”

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